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Perhaps. Nonetheless it's ~10x Russia's[1] and ~3.5x China's. The majority of the the remaining Top 10 spenders are allies. It's not a matter of GDP, it's a mat

Perhaps. Nonetheless it's ~10x Russia's[1] and ~3.5x China's. The majority of the the remaining Top 10 spenders are allies. It's not a matter of GDP, it's a matter of: exactly who and what necessitates such excess? And what is the associated opportunity cost? [1] And yet it didn't prevent Russia's quest for Ukraine.

hedora 3y ago
The US was winning the shooting war in Ukraine the last time I checked (we may not technically be at war with Russia, but we are in most practical senses of the word).
- xyzelement 3y ago
  // The US was winning the shooting war How would we know? I live in the US but speak fluent Russian and have lots of family from Ukraine, and yet I don't feel like having access to all these perspectives enables me to have a sense for where the truth is. I can say that what we see in the west is not the whole story - lots of victories, footage of droned Russians, and an occasional reference to a fallen Ukrainians hero. In more pro-russian sources, you get exactly the opposite idea and visuals - lots of blown up Ukrainian and destroyed equipment. If you don't see that on regular basis and what I described sounds surprising, you are getting a very filtered view of what's going on. I can't claim where the truth is but I know the picture most westerners get by default is very rosy vs reality.
  - philwelch 3y ago
    Ukraine is still in the fight over eighteen months after an invasion that was planned to topple Kyiv in three days. I would say the Ukrainians probably deserve more credit than the United States for this outcome, but if you asked anyone in the winter of 2021/2022 to predict the outcome of a full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine is doing much better than one would have reasonably expected.
    - chrisco255 3y ago
      It was never planned for 3 days. That's just another fake sound bite. The war was brewing since 2014 and everyone in U.S. government knew it and everyone in Russia knew it. Here's the late Senator McCain 9 years ago in Kiev: https://youtu.be/93eyhO8VTdg?si=5oIEG-V3BXLhAywd https://youtu.be/93eyhO8VTdg?si=5oIEG-V3BXLhAywd Here's him and Lindsey Graham again 8 years ago talking about arming and training Ukrainians: https://www.youtube.com/live/AnvF_EzYQ8Q?si=qRMch8mQR5AIPi6m https://www.youtube.com/live/AnvF_EzYQ8Q?si=qRMch8mQR5AIPi6m
      - youngtilted 3y ago
        Here's a surprisingly nuanced perspective at the State Department in 2008: https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html#efmBTnBfi https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html#efmBTn...
      - philwelch 3y ago
        > The war was brewing since 2014 and everyone in U.S. government knew it and everyone in Russia knew it. The war arguably started in 2014. 2022 was when Russia went all in on regime change, a goal they have failed to achieve for over a year and a half now.
philwelch 3y ago
The largest part of the defense budget is pay and benefits, and it turns out Americans are much more expensive to employ than Chinese. China has 2.1 million active duty service members while the US only has 1.3 million.[1] The US also requires all equipment to be manufactured in the US, which is much more expensive than manufacturing in China. You need to account for military purchasing power parity to have an honest discussion about defense spending.[2] > And what is the associated opportunity cost? The entire global economy relies on trade, which relies on ocean shipping, which relies on freedom of navigation, which is enforced primarily by the US Navy. American security guarantees have also allowed and protected the development of prosperous democracies like Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. There’s also the time the US military led a coalition to stop Milosevic’s campaign of ethnic cleaning in the former Yugoslavia. The opportunity cost here is a poorer, less prosperous, less democratic world with even more genocide and war. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_military_and_paramilitary_personnel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_... [2] https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/debating-defence-budgets-why-military-purchasing-power-parity-matters https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/debating-defence-budgets-why-...

hedora 3y ago

The US was winning the shooting war in Ukraine the last time I checked (we may not technically be at war with Russia, but we are in most practical senses of the word).

xyzelement 3y ago
// The US was winning the shooting war How would we know? I live in the US but speak fluent Russian and have lots of family from Ukraine, and yet I don't feel like having access to all these perspectives enables me to have a sense for where the truth is. I can say that what we see in the west is not the whole story - lots of victories, footage of droned Russians, and an occasional reference to a fallen Ukrainians hero. In more pro-russian sources, you get exactly the opposite idea and visuals - lots of blown up Ukrainian and destroyed equipment. If you don't see that on regular basis and what I described sounds surprising, you are getting a very filtered view of what's going on. I can't claim where the truth is but I know the picture most westerners get by default is very rosy vs reality.
- philwelch 3y ago
  Ukraine is still in the fight over eighteen months after an invasion that was planned to topple Kyiv in three days. I would say the Ukrainians probably deserve more credit than the United States for this outcome, but if you asked anyone in the winter of 2021/2022 to predict the outcome of a full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine is doing much better than one would have reasonably expected.
  - chrisco255 3y ago
    It was never planned for 3 days. That's just another fake sound bite. The war was brewing since 2014 and everyone in U.S. government knew it and everyone in Russia knew it. Here's the late Senator McCain 9 years ago in Kiev: https://youtu.be/93eyhO8VTdg?si=5oIEG-V3BXLhAywd https://youtu.be/93eyhO8VTdg?si=5oIEG-V3BXLhAywd Here's him and Lindsey Graham again 8 years ago talking about arming and training Ukrainians: https://www.youtube.com/live/AnvF_EzYQ8Q?si=qRMch8mQR5AIPi6m https://www.youtube.com/live/AnvF_EzYQ8Q?si=qRMch8mQR5AIPi6m
    - youngtilted 3y ago
      Here's a surprisingly nuanced perspective at the State Department in 2008: https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html#efmBTnBfi https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html#efmBTn...
    - philwelch 3y ago
      > The war was brewing since 2014 and everyone in U.S. government knew it and everyone in Russia knew it. The war arguably started in 2014. 2022 was when Russia went all in on regime change, a goal they have failed to achieve for over a year and a half now.

philwelch 3y ago

The largest part of the defense budget is pay and benefits, and it turns out Americans are much more expensive to employ than Chinese. China has 2.1 million active duty service members while the US only has 1.3 million.[1] The US also requires all equipment to be manufactured in the US, which is much more expensive than manufacturing in China. You need to account for military purchasing power parity to have an honest discussion about defense spending.[2] > And what is the associated opportunity cost? The entire global economy relies on trade, which relies on ocean shipping, which relies on freedom of navigation, which is enforced primarily by the US Navy. American security guarantees have also allowed and protected the development of prosperous democracies like Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. There’s also the time the US military led a coalition to stop Milosevic’s campaign of ethnic cleaning in the former Yugoslavia. The opportunity cost here is a poorer, less prosperous, less democratic world with even more genocide and war. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_military_and_paramilitary_personnel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_... [2] https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/debating-defence-budgets-why-military-purchasing-power-parity-matters https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/debating-defence-budgets-why-...